


Neither/Nor

by Darkrealmist



Category: Rockman X | Mega Man X, Rockman | Mega Man - All Media Types, Rockman.EXE | Mega Man Battle Network
Genre: Action/Adventure, Anime, Boys Kissing, Cell Phones, Clones, Episode Related, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Het and Slash, Horror, Illusions, Internet, M/M, Meta, Mind Manipulation, Multi, Nightmare Fuel, Pre-Slash, Psychological Warfare, Romance, Saving the World, Science Fiction, Video & Computer Games, Wish Fulfillment, Wordcount: 100-1.000, Wordcount: 100-500, Wordcount: Under 10.000, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-16
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2020-10-18 11:41:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20638568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkrealmist/pseuds/Darkrealmist
Summary: Cache creates a faultless utopia to weaken humans’ resistance while he incorporates their data. One that, for Hikari Netto, revolves a whole lot around Hikawa Tohru.





	Neither/Nor

Neither/Nor

Author’s Note: Set during episode 25 and episode 26 of _Beast+_. Enjoy the story and R&R.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of the Rockman EXE series.

Pairings: Pre-slash Netto x Tohru. Referenced one-sided Meiru x Netto.

Summary:

Cache creates a faultless utopia to weaken humans’ resistance while he incorporates their data. One that, for Hikari Netto, revolves a whole lot around Hikawa Tohru.

* * *

Beneath the workaday banality, Hikari Netto knew there was something inherently _wrong _about the world he woke up to.

His mother forced him from bed. He went to school. Saw Iris. Was chewed out by Mariko-sensei for disrupting class while fighting with Dekao.

Normal.

He began suspecting his circumstances when Tohru took a more prominent role than previous, nonchalantly dragging him around by the wrist the same way Meiru usually would, and then kissing him on the cheek.

He and Tohru were a couple.

But Netto couldn’t remember when any of it was true. He liked Hikawa Tohru, yes, but distinctly recalled the words “I love you” never having moved beyond the embarrassing recitations to himself in the bathroom mirror.

Others demonstrated memory problems too, not recognizing PETs or Battle Chips. Everybody used mobile phones instead.

He was living a dream. Quite literally, the collective totality of human aspirations. An idealized cyberspace that adjusted to fit the subjective wants of those impounded inside.

Netto’s group visited Higureya, Densan City’s resident “Item Shop.”

Odd. Was it always a store that solely sold video games?

“Shuuko-san, has _Iceman X_ come in yet?” Tohru inquired.

NetNavis may not have existed, but Iceman starred in his own action-platform series in this universe!

Since Netto’s thoughts of Tohru were being projected onto the counterfeit Earth, it understandably carried a pro-Tohru tilt.

The illusion started collapsing when Netto found his cloaked PET at “home.” Cache’s Phantom Navis overran him, warped into horrible half-human monsters. Bug faces on his parents’ bodies! His friends’ heads attached to Jammingmen!

With surprise encouragement from Trill’s cache data, he and Rockman defeated Cache and reversed the effects of the hate-entity’s assimilation wave.

Those Cache absorbed retained knowledge of their entrapment, including awareness of Netto’s alternate reality romance with Tohru.

Meiru glomped Netto anyway.

Would Tohru please be the one to glomp him for once?

In light of the debilitating battle, his friends mostly put off grubbing through his private business until later. Tohru, unaccepting of the ambiguity, shyly requested they kiss for real after Meiru left.

Wary it might be another ruse, Netto proposed a simple test: “You’re not a zombie, are you?”

“I’m not staggering lifelessly toward you wearing a creepy smile, am I?”

Netto squinted, their noses touching. Story checked out.

Neither Cache nor Meiru dictated his trajectory. He had what he wanted right here.


End file.
